Social Selling: How to Reach Buyers Earlier & Shorten the Sales Cycle

Sales and marketing professionals both know, when it comes to reaching a prospective buyer and closing a deal — timing is everything. As the sales industry advances and consumer purchasing evolves, the research, technology and training that goes into closing a deal has changed. Over the past few years, the explosion of social media, mobile technology and unlimited access to information has turned the sales process on it’s head. Instead of cold calling, customers are seeking connections. Buyer trust is no longer gained just through advertising and awareness, but through expert advice and thought leadership. To do this, savvy sales and marketing professionals are turning to social selling.

Stay Ahead of the Competition

Organizations that are succeeding in this new era are training their sales force in social selling and reaching customers through top social media networks like LinkedIn and Twitter. Aberdeen Research, shows that 64% of sales teams that use social selling hit quota compared to 49% that don’t use social selling. To stay ahead of the competition, modern sales professionals and marketers are working in tandem to create social selling programs and equip their sales teams with relevant content to share.

Put Cold Calling on Hold

If your sales rep calls a prospect, you can expect that he or she will look up the sale rep on social media and check out their presence online and if they don’t have a credible personal brand on social media, the prospect probably won’t take the call. According DemandGen, 77% of buyers won’t even speak with sales until they have performed their own research online. For example, research from the CMO Council shows that the average buyer consumes five pieces of content before they’re ready to speak with a sales professional. Sales teams that are succeeding in this new era are reaching these buyers earlier in the process through social selling.

Ignite Your Sales Team to Drive 10X More Leads

Interested in learning more about social selling? This guide will get you what you need to get your sales team ready to master social selling — in just 2 minutes a day. The opportunity is out there, your biggest risk is not taking it.

Download the ebook to learn:

How sales will drive more opportunities and close deals with social selling